This is part two of the US Diversity Visa Lottery guide, published by USAGreenCardLottery.org to further help you in your efforts to become a Permanent Resident in the United States.
In part one, we covered what makes an applicant eligible to register for the Green Card Lottery and how to apply.
The Diversity Visa process takes a minimum of two years and to help you keep track of the timeline, we will refer to the first year (the year you apply for the Green Card Lottery) Year One, and the next year when you apply for the actual green card as Year Two. Year Three is the year when you actually enter the United States!
Green Card Lottery Winners
The United States Congress reserves about 55,000 green cards to be given away in the spring of Year Two of the Green Card Lottery. However, 100,000 “winners” are selected during this period of time because about half of those selected will not be able to get through the adjustment of status process (which will be discussed in a moment).
On May 1 of Year Two applicants of the Green Card Lottery can go onto the State Department’s website and check the status of their application with the confirmation number that they were given at the time of registration. This is why it is very important to keep this number safe, so that applicants can know if they won or not.
Adjustment of Status
After winning the Green Card Lottery it is then time to apply for the actual permanent residency card. This process can take a while and can be quite involved in providing appropriate documentation.
Immigrants who are able to successfully adjust their status to permanent resident of the United States will then be able to live, work, study and travel freely in the United States.